The present invention relates to a rear vehicle-body structure of a vehicle which comprises a suspension housing.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-137374, there is a case where at a vehicle-body rear portion is provided a suspension housing for supporting a damper of a suspension between a side frame extending in a vehicle longitudinal direction and a wheel house housing a rear wheel.
The suspension housing disclosed in the above-described patent document comprises a support face portion to which an upper end portion of the damper is fixed, a vertical wall portion which extends downward from an inward-side edge portion, in a vehicle width direction, of the support face portion, and a flange portion which is provided at a lower end portion of the vertical wall portion, and this suspension housing is joined to an upper face of the side frame at the flange portion.
Further, the suspension housing includes plural ribs which extend radically from a peripheral edge of a damper insertion hole provided at a center of the support face portion and roughly-triangular reinforcing wall portions which are respectively provided at front-and-rear ends of the support face portion, whereby the support face portion is reinforced.
In a conventional suspension housing disclosed in the above-described patent document, since the vertical wall portion and the support face portion are provided adjacently to each other on an outward side, in the vehicle width direction, of the side frame, protruding toward a cabin inside greatly as a whole, there is room for improvement in making a cabin space, such as a baggage-room space, properly large.
Further, in a case where a distance, in the vehicle width direction, between the side frame and the damper is large in a vehicle-body structure comprising the above-described suspension housing, it is required to configure the support face portion such that its width is wide in the vehicle width direction. Accordingly, some reinforcing countermeasures for securing a surface rigidity of the support face portion, such as providing the above-described ribs or the above-described reinforcing wall portions, are necessary, which may cause structural complexity or weight increase.